Gyatso's Coffee Beans
by tophoftheline
Summary: Aang had always lived his life floating on cloud 9, but as soon as Toph Beifong walked into his coffee shop he knew he'd have to get used to living life with his feet planted on the ground. (taang)
1. chapter 1

Aang loved the smell of coffee. It lingered in the air, filling his sense of smell and giving him a sense of comfort. He had been working at Gyatso's Coffee Beans since he was 16, and was extremely close to the elderly man who owned the business. They both shared in their love of coffee, made games out of who could create the best coffee or who could come up with the most recipes. He had become Aang's best friend, and when he passed away he left his beloved shop to the one person Gyatso knew he could fully entrust it to: Aang.

Now, at the age of 23, he was a successful coffee shop owner, doing what he loved. His employees loved his gentle touch when handling hard situations and enjoyed the easy-going atmosphere Aang always made sure was in place. He made sure to be nice to all the customers, even the cranky soccer moms who wanted their coffee with 20 different modifications. People came for coffee when they were stressed or tired or just wanting to have fun, so he made it his personal goal to make sure every customer possible got what they needed from them.

Even though Aang would never admit it, his favorite drink they served was their white hot chocolate. It wasn't anything special, just hot chocolate but made with white chocolate instead of cocoa, but the sweet taste always managed to remind him a little bit of his childhood high in the mountains at the monk's monastery before he had been taken away by social services.

Aang reached up to finger the prayer beads he kept around his neck. A reminder of the teachings he learned from his mentors, the constant press of comfort that their teachings of peace and self-reflection brought. A nervous habit of his.

"Kory look, it's that weird blind girl again. Think this time she'll actually order something? Probably not, considering she can't even see what's on the menu," Aang heard one of his employees remark to his co-worker at the cash register. He gave a small frown. It wasn't their place to judge anyone for anything. She was a customer, blind or not, and deserved to be treated as such. He walked over and put a hand on Leslie's shoulder, the one who had made the rude comment.

"I heard that, and I'm very disappointed in you Leslie. Just because she's blind doesn't mean she's incapable of ordering coffee. Please go to the back and wash the Frappe machines, I will take over the register." With an 'hmph' the young girl stomped off, swinging her long braided hair and marching to the back. Aang sighed and rubbed his hands together as he approached the register, looking around in an attempt to spot the woman his employee was discussing.

It took a few minutes, but eventually his eyes caught on a fairly short woman, black hair tied up in a large bun behind her head and held in place with a green headband. She was wearing a green tank top underneath an unbuttoned white and black plaid shirt with some black skinny jeans. She appeared to be wearing sneakers, but they looked kind of strange, almost like the soles of the shoes had been taken off. Weird. But who was he to judge anyways? He was bald with a giant arrow tattoo on his head from a ritual from his time with the monks, he had no room to judge. Her eyes were a dull blue, and it took him a second to realize that they weren't actually dull, just clouded over. Blind.

If the context of Leslie's comment was anything to go by, this woman came in often but never actually ordered. Maybe she felt awkward? Maybe she just couldn't ever decide what she wanted, who knows. But being the friendly guy he is, he decided to walk around the counter and make his way over to her. He stopped in front of her and took a second to take a good look at her. He had a way of being able to tell how people liked their coffee with just a few looks, a talent he was quite proud of.

He pegged her as a mocha kind of girl. Not a frappe, nothing fancy or frilly, just something that tasted really chocolatey.

"Hello miss, my name's Aang and I'm the manager here. Is there anything I can get you? We have a great selection of mocha coffees in all different varieties." He smiled, even though he knew she probably wouldn't be able to see it if the film over her eyes was anything to go by, but he smiled anyways. He always had a smile on his face, the only exception being when he was concentrating on a new coffee recipe or grooming his dogs Momo and Appa.

The woman's head turned in his direction as she tapped her foot against the floor. One. Two. Three. Three taps before she walked up to him and shrugged.

"What do you suggest, mister manager hot shot?" Aang was slightly taken aback. Her voice wasn't light and airy like a lot of girls, it was a bit rougher but still pleasing to the ears. But what really caught him off guard was the teasing tinge in her voice. There was a confidence there that he wasn't quite expecting, not from someone who stood at the back of the coffee shop without ever ordering. He liked that.

"Well, if you want more of a mocha flavor and less of a coffee flavor I suggest our double mocha cream cappuccino. It's loaded with chocolate. Or if you want more of a coffee flavor and a more subtle mocha experience, I can get you a two shot espresso with a few squirts of mocha. I'll even custom make a coffee to your liking!" He watched as the woman's eyebrows raised higher and higher behind her long bangs. When he finally finished she just gave a chuckle.

"Nah, think I'll pass on all that fancy stuff. Mocha coffee isn't my thing." Aang was confused. He was never wrong, he could always tell when someone was a chocolate lover or leaned more towards caramel. Sometimes he'd get the occasional cinnamon or raspberry tea, even peppermint and a lot more hazelnut than one might expect. But he had never been wrong. But one can't be right all the time, so he took it in stride and continued on.

"Well then, what is it that I can get you?" If he didn't know any better he'd say that she was looking at him skeptically, but that wasn't possible. Instead she just continued going tap, tap, tap with her foot.

"Your employees behind the counter are staring at us." Swiveling around to look he found that the girl was right, pretty much all of his employees had stopped in their tracks and were blatantly staring at the two. He didn't mind, he knew it was a rare sight to see him not behind the counter, but how did she know?

"I don't mean to be rude, but-"

"How do I know? Yeah yeah, you're not the first to have asked me that question." She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, still continuing with the tap, tap, tap. Aang sat and waited and watched, expecting an answer. He shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, wringing his hands in anticipation. She was… intimidating to say the least.

"So… How did you know?"

"Their feet were turned in a way that I could tell they were facing us, and their heartbeats were slightly raised." Ok. Did he have the right to judge now? No, no he didn't. But he was still very confused and very much out of his element. Out of habit, his hands once again reached up and started fiddling with his prayer beads.

The tapping finally stopped.

"Well, I think I've seen everything I need to. So you were asking me about my coffee order. Here's a deal for you then. You make me a hot chocolate, but when you call out my order you say it's some really cool coffee. I don't care what kind of coffee, just don't make it anything stupid like a frappuccino." Aang raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Ummm, are you... Embarrassed of ordering a hot chocolate?" With a scowl on her face and a punch to his arm, she walked over to one of the tables and sat down. "I'll be waiting for my order. Oh, and hold the whip cream. Extra cocoa. And my name's Toph."

Something about the way she kicked back in the chair and crossed her legs up on the table made him smile a little. She was fiddling with a little metal bracelet as she hummed a small tune to herself.

Turning on his heel he went back behind the counter, waving his hand to get everyone back to work and starting on his new customer's hot chocolate. No one could make a killer hot chocolate the way he could, after all. Three spoons of cocoa, warm whole milk, and a teaspoon of hazelnut cream to really bring out that chocolatey taste. The whole time he kept Toph in his peripheral vision, biting his lip in contemplation.

He couldn't deny that the woman was… out of the norm he was used to. But he didn't know her personally so he couldn't say whether or not she really was out of the norm. But if she kept coming around, maybe he would get to find out. Aang was always one who loved to get to know new people and learn from them, so maybe he had something he could learn from her.

Once the steamer went off for the hot chocolate he grabbed a cup and wrote her name on it, pouring in the steaming liquid and adding a little bit of nutmeg and cinnamon, just for a small little touch.

"Long macchiato, extra shot of espresso, hold the whip cream for Toph!"

Aang grinned as he watched the girl push against the table and stand up, pushing her way between people to get to the pick-up stand. She stood in front of him for a few moments, holding out her hand for the drink. He carefully handed it to her, not wanting to spill it, nervous under her sightless gaze. Something about her eyes…

"Nice touch with the extra shot of espresso. Anyways, thanks for the drink. See yah later, twinkletoes." Toph gave a few taps of her foot before making her way through the crowd again, not giving Aang a chance to respond. He stood there for a few minutes, staring after her. Twinkletoes? Where did that come from?

Without warning a familiar face blocked his line of sight, snapping him out of the thoughtless stupor he was in.

"Ok Aang, I haven't seen you so stupefied since the first time you saw that chick Katara. Take the rest of the day off and go talk to her," his friend Zuko insisted. Before he could refuse, Zuko was taking off his apron for him and grabbing the hand towel from off his shoulder.

"But Zuko, someone's got to watch-"

"No, Aang. I'm your assistant manager, I think I can handle this. It's time for you to go home anyways, you closed last night and opened this morning. Now for once in your life, go have some fun outside of this dump."

With a sigh Aang walked over to the time clock and punched himself out. "Fine, I'll go. But just so you know, Leslie is on dish duty for the rest of the night. I know that given the chance she'll try to convince you otherwise. Oh, and before she leaves, remind her the importance of accepting and being kind to everyone, even if they're not around to hear or see." Zuko rolled his eyes. Aang wasn't officially a monk anymore, but everyone knew that if he had to go back to a monastery he'd settle right back in, if his constant ramblings about inner peace and all that mumbo-jumbo was anything to go by

Without waiting for a response Aang ran out the door, praying that Toph hadn't gotten too far. The street was busy, cars honking and the sidewalks crowded. With so much traffic she couldn't have gone-

"Took you long enough. I thought you'd never come out of that stink hole." Whipping around he found Toph leaning against the wall right next to the coffee shop's door. She really hadn't gone far at all, apparently. The young man gave an 'hmph' and crossed his arms, walking over to stand next to her.

"It's not a stink hole, it's a coffee shop. A pretty good coffee shop, too. So how's the long macchiato?" Tapping her foot some more, the girl grinned at his joke. Aang noted that her grin wasn't really a kind lighthearted grin, but it also wasn't a sinister grin. More like she was a twelve year old about to tell a joke that she knew her parents wouldn't approve of.

"Not too bad. I've had better, definitely had worse. And what did you add to this thing anyways? Let me guess, love and a positive attitude?" She said the last part mockingly, batting her eyelashes and sticking out her hip. Aang simply rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips, mockingly batting his eyelashes back, forgetting that she wouldn't even be able to see him do so.

"Cinnamon and nutmeg, but I bet the extra love and positive attitude that I added didn't hurt it either," Aang retorted with a chuckle. Toph simply flicked the middle of his forehead and snorted.

"Well, next time try and hold back a little on the love and positive attitude. My mom has added enough happiness and love into her cooking to last me a lifetime." Both chuckled at her little joke before they both fell silent. After a few moments the air around them started to grow awkward, at least for Aang. Looking over at Toph as she loudly gulped down her hot chocolate, she looked as if a giant bear could pounce at her at any moment and she wouldn't even mind. However, the boy felt the need to say something, bring up some sort of conversation. In the end, maybe it wasn't that he was feeling awkward, and it was simply a matter of being anxious to know more about this woman.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Aang cleared his throat. "So, do you tap dance or something?"

Toph choked on the hot chocolate she was working on swallowing, coughing and pounding on her chest. Aang looked around in a panic before reaching out to pat her on the back, only for his hand to be swatted away.

"Hands off, twinkletoes." Toph coughed for a few more seconds before continuing. "And no, I don't do anything sissy like tap dance, ugh. I'd rather be caught dead. I tap because it's how I see. My eyes don't work worth crap, so I tap the ground and feel the vibrations of everything around me. That's how I see. So what's a good place to get some grub around here?"

Aang didn't even have a chance to look at her in amazement like he was tempted to because without any warning Toph's hand had wrapped itself around his wrist and he was being dragged through the crowd. Easily weaving his way through the crowd he followed the abrasive girl, noting how she didn't weave her way through people. No, instead she just pushed her way through. She parted the crowd, made her own path, without even trying.

"Umm, well I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask considering I'm a vegetarian. There's a pretty good noodle grill on 2654 South though, if you want to give that a try." Aang continued swerving and Toph continued stomping a path through the crowd, neither being even slightly phased by the shoulders that would occasionally bump into them.

"I don't know where 2654 South is, describe an obvious landmark around that area." Spotting an available sitting bench, he grabbed her arm and sat her down next to him.

"Let's take a second, I've been on my feet all day and they're starting to cramp."

"What a lily-liver. Fine, we'll sit, but you're going to be my foot rest."

Once they were situated she immediately yanked her arm away, going back to loudly sipping on her drink. She lifted her legs up so that they were draped across Aang's lap, her back leaning against the armrest on her side of the bench. The tattooed boy simply couldn't get over how little craps this woman had to give. Looking down at her feet he saw that he had been right earlier, the bottoms of her shoes were cut off.

"Anyways, why don't I just take us to the grill?"

"Because I have a feeling you couldn't make your way around a rose bush without a map." Aang blushed and scratched the back of his head, knowing that she wasn't exactly wrong. He was always too busy being lost in his own head to really pay attention to things like directions. One of Toph's legs dropped off his lap onto the ground, beginning its tapping.

"Well, there's a park right across the street from the shop. It's got a swing set, a giant slide, a few sets of monkey bars, and a rock climbing-"

"Found it."

The tapping stopped and Aang blinked at her as she casually sipped on her drink.

"Vibrations, twinkletoes. Parks aren't that hard to find if you know what kind of vibrations metal makes."

With that explanation, Aang leaned back and relaxed, taking a moment to sort out his thoughts. Aang may have spent most of his time at the coffee shop, but really he was quite adventurous. He had met all kinds of people, been all over the place and done so many different things that most people would run away from without a second thought. But this girl? She was already wearing him out. She seemed to move at her own pace, going fast then slow and then speeding ahead again. With all the people he's met, so far she was the most interesting, and he'd only known her for less than an hour.

"Why do you keep calling me twinkletoes? Do you even know my actual name?" She shrugged, tapped her foot one last time before swinging it back up onto his lap, and then threw her empty cup into the nearest trash can.

"Cause you're extremely light on your feet. I've come in a lot and you're usually there. Every single time, your footsteps are the faintest. Sometimes it's like you're not even there, almost like you're walking on air. So I've always just called you twinkletoes in my head. Is there a problem with that?" She brought her hand up and stuck her finger in her ear, digging around for god knows what.

Aang shrugged. When put like that, it was actually a pretty clever nickname. "No, not a problem. I mean I guess I'm light on my feet, I've spent my whole life practicing Ba Gua and a tad bit of Xingyiquan. Kinda gotta be light on your feet for that, I guess." Growing up as a Tibetan monk did have its perks, after all.

"Ba Gua? That spiny martial art? No wonder why you're always twirling around the coffee shop. I practice Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu. We'll have to spar sometime, see how fast I can kick your butt." Aang laughed when she punched him on the shoulder.

"I think I may be able to hold my own for longer than you think. But that's cool that you practice martial arts too. That kind of style of Kung Fu is pretty different from what I'm used to, it'd be interesting."

"Yeah, it would be."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Aang comfortably watching the crowds pass by and Toph tap-tap-tapping on the ground and fiddling with her bracelet. The sun was shining bright, hurting the young boy's eyes slightly, but he didn't mind. For the first time in a long while, he didn't feel the constant need to run around and be going at 100 miles an hour. He felt perfectly fine just sitting down next to this weird stranger, enjoying the sights and smells and maybe even having a fun conversation.

He'd have to stay in touch with her.

Without warning a hand was clutching onto the collar of his shirt and he was being dragged onto his feet and through the crowd. Again.

"Enough chatting, time for food, lily-liver!"


	2. chapter 2

"Hey, that's cheating! You can't twist your wrist like that!" Aang said as he pulled his hand away from Toph. The girl laughed, picking up her chopsticks and digging back into her noodles. Some of her hair had gotten back into her face, so she blew it away before stuffing her face with another serving of garlic noodles.

"No one said anything at all about twisting your wrist, so therefore it's not cheating!" Aang, who was a bit more… conservative with his eating habits, swallowed his udon and pointed his chopsticks at her.

"It's simply common sense! It's a thumb war, not a whole hand war. When you told me you could kick my butt at a thumb war any day, I assumed you meant without cheating!" Toph stuck her tongue out at him and laughed, punching his shoulder.

"Well then I guess it's a good thing I didn't cheat, isn't it?" Toph once again reached over and grabbed a chunk of udon noodles from Aang's bowl and shoved them in her mouth. So far she had already managed to eat about half his udon, and Aang just couldn't find it in him to be upset about that. The way this girl just unashamedly acted like she had known him for years instead of mere hours made it hard to get mad. It made him want to reach over and take as big a gulp from her drink as possible in retaliation.

So that's exactly what he did, he quickly grabbed her large drink and noisily gulped down the fruit punch (apparently Toph had something against carbonation, something he would never be able to understand). Toph's ears twitched at the sound of Aang downing her punch through the straw.

"Oh, is that how we're gonna play it? You're on!" Reaching over she grabbed his glass of iced tea and started gulping the liquid down. It was now a contest, who could finish the other person's drink before the other? Scrunching his eyes, Aang started taking bigger gulps from his straw, grabbing one of his chopsticks and tossing it at the girl across from him in an attempt to throw her off her game. Toph spluttered but immediately went back to downing the slightly bitter liquid, tossing the chopstick right back at Aang.

However, by the time the chopstick reached the boy he was already done, eyes scrunched in an attempt to shake off the headache he now had.

The headache was worth it.

"And you said that I cheated at thumb wars! You threw a chopstick at me!" Aang just laughed and grabbed his tray, standing up and walking over to the trash bin to throw it in the garbage.

"It was payback! All I did was scam the scammer!" Blowing her bangs out of her face, the girl stood up and started tapping her foot. Once she had located the trash can, she followed suit and threw out the rest of her garlic noodles. Toph followed behind, quietly thinking to herself as they made their way out of the noodle shop.

She had spent so much time just sitting in the back of that coffee shop, too proud to actually walk up and ask for something as stupid as a hot chocolate, and from all the conversations she had overheard she had assumed that Aang was nothing but a baby dressed up as an adult. Turns out she wasn't exactly wrong, but she wasn't exactly right either. From what she could gather, Aang had the passion and the drive of someone too young for their age, a love for fun and laughter that should have dimmed over time, but he held an air of maturity that she just couldn't place her finger on. Throughout their conversation, he had said some things that were actually pretty wise for someone his age. He was free, unrestrained, laughing as loud as a wind storm.

She still had a lot to learn about him (if she even decided to stick around long enough to learn more), and she knew from experience not to take everything at face value. She hadn't known him long enough to form a real opinion, to really know if the Aang she was talking with was really Aang, or just a mask he put on around new people.

She knew all too well about the masks people put on. Growing up rich, everyone had a mask, there was just no getting around that. Pretty words shielded hidden intentions, and polite laughs covered up insecurities. Her mask growing up was one of polite indifference, ignoring the whispers behind her back and the careful touch her nannies took with her. Her nights sneaking off and getting into street fights were the best nights of her life, until she was finally old enough to make a life for herself and could take off that mask 24/7.

That mask was long gone and in the garbage, something she refused to put on no matter how long she had known someone. She had been restricted by it for too long. However, other people had no qualms about putting on those masks. People would put on a 'first impression mask' as she liked to call it, and when it came to her that usually entailed much too enthusiastic laughs at all her jokes and being way too conscious about her being blind, per the usual.

Aang though? He hadn't laughed at all her jokes, and after the first bit of their time together it was like he completely forgot she was blind. He didn't try and throw her tray away, he didn't try and read the menu to her until she asked him to, he let her walk herself to the table without any help. She was normal. He was awkward (sometimes a little too awkward, if she was being honest) and goofy and took all of her punches and jabs without a single complaint.

Normally, Toph would run off before really getting to know people because she couldn't be bothered to slow down her way of doing things for others. That or they would get intimidated by how abrasive she came off as from their very first meeting.

But maybe, just maybe, Aang would be the exception.

"So, you're a vegetarian. Why would you ever give up meat?" Toph started as they walked out onto the street back into the human traffic on the sidewalk. She felt Aang's shoulders shrug as they were pushed against each other in the hustle and bustle.

"To tell you the truth, I've never even had meat. The monks had taught me from day one that all life is sacred, so I've always been a vegetarian." Toph's ear twitched. Her hearing was impeccable, there was no way she heard him wrong. But a monk?

"Did you grow up living next to a bunch of priests and their mumbo jumbo?"

Aang laughed heartily at the little verbal jab. "No, when I was born, my mother and father couldn't take care of me so they left me on the doors of the only Tibetan monk monastery in the state. They took care of me and raised me, but when the social workers found out that I was twelve and still hadn't gone to school, they put me in a foster family."

Suddenly Aang stopped, bending down to help a lady who had dropped her groceries. Toph stood there waiting, tapping her foot and digging her toes into the cracks of the concrete as she digested what he had said. He really had grown up with monks. Maybe that's where his random wisdom came from. Once he was standing back up and by her side, she cleared her throat as a sign to continue.

"Anyways, I was passed from family to family throughout the town, but there was always Gyatso. He had been raised by monks too when he was younger, and social services also forced him out so we kind of bonded over that. We both loved coffee and so when I was 16 I started working at his coffee shop.

"Outside of the coffee shop he pretty much lived his life as close to a monk's life as he could. He would have rejoined a monastery but he had too many roots in his life, and so he did his best to combine those two aspects of his life. He grew his own food and his home was electronic free, except for things such as a stove and refrigerator. He even had some of his own monk clothes that he wore on days that he didn't work."

Toph nodded, fascinated by his retelling. She had always lived a life in luxury up until a few years ago, and even now she still led a pretty privileged life. Feeling a bus stop nearby, she grabbed him and dragged him over to sit so that he could continue his story in peace. She went back to draping her legs over his lap, and Aang proceeded to play with the hem of her pants as he didn't even skip a beat in his musings.

"I took to that pretty quick, because that's what I grew up with. It was what made me comfortable. We bonded, and when I would come over we would meditate and say our prayers and play a game that the monks used to play, Pai Sho. He had the same tattoos as I do and we would spend hours discussing spirituality and scriptures. In the chaos and disorganization that was my life, he was my rock. I would spend as many hours as I could working in the coffee shop, and I would spend as much time as possible at Gyatso's house. Especially when he made his fruit tarts, no one made them like Gyatso. He always said the trick was in making the filling light and airy, but I can never figure out exactly how he managed it."

Aang's hands suddenly stopped playing with her pants and dropped to his side.

"He died two years ago. Left me his house and his coffee shop, said that there was no other monk he'd want taking care of his legacy."

Toph could practically feel the grief radiating off of the man. What could it have possibly been like to lose the last piece of a life you once held so dear? He probably grew his own food by himself and meditated by himself, didn't have anyone to share that with anymore. And he couldn't just go back to a monastery, Aang seemed way too rooted in the life that Gyatso had left for him to be able to do that.

This was way too deep and personal for a first get together. Toph's skin started to crawl a little, feeling anxious. This boy didn't just lack a mask, he threw everything out into the open without a second thought, and not in the way Toph did. She just threw out her personality, Aang was throwing out his emotions and his past.

"You literally just met me an hour ago. Why are you telling me all of this?" She didn't mean to say it, it just kind of came out, but roll with the flow. Aang just simply chuckled.

"No reason, really. You wanted to know why I was a vegetarian and I kinda got lost in it all. I guess I just really like being a monk, but I also really like life outside of being a monk. Is there really a point in trying to keep all of that in?"

Toph supposed not. In a twisted way, there really wasn't a specific reason why one would bother holding that kind of stuff in until later on in one's relationship other than societal social norms or because of the pain those kinds of conversations might bring up. But if Aang was at peace with the situation and was able to say screw societal norms, then delving into his past on the first meet up wouldn't be too big of a deal for him.

She admired that. Being so free and at peace with your place in the world that you could just let out that emotional baggage to someone you just met? She couldn't even imagine being able to do that.

"Well, if you don't calm yourself the whole entire district will know about your sob story. Come on, let's get you home so you can cry in your pillow." Toph stood herself up and reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone and handing it to Aang.

"I suck at using this considering I can't see it, but if you add your number and make your speed dial number 6, I'll give you a call the next time I'm around. Oh, and once you get my number, if you ever call me crying I will hang up on you. I don't deal with that kind of crap until the 7th date, understand?"

Aang nodded and punched his number into her phone before handing it back.

"Got it, call me whenever!"

As she made her way back into the crowd he couldn't help but smile to himself.

Thank you so much for reading! Don't forget to leave a review!


	3. Chapter 3

Ok, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a bit, but I came down with a really bad ear infection and writing was just a tad difficult to concentrate on. Anyways, here you go! Don't forget to leave a review once you're done reading!

Aang was a patient man, no one could deny that. As long as he got enough sleep, it took a lot to get him angry (however, if he didn't get enough sleep you wanted to keep your distance as much as possible). He also wasn't a very sarcastic person, so when Aang started talking back it was clearly time to back off. Unfortunately, some people never learn this lesson.

"Yes, Sokka. You're right, in those two hours I spent with her we definitely fell in love and now we're going to have magical little monk babies. Now are you going to continue pestering me about a girl I just met or are you going to finish fixing my bike?"

Sokka just shrugged and went back to work on replacing the tire to Aang's bike. Aang was sitting just a few feet away, working on his garden as his best friend and him talked. For the past hour Sokka had been badgering him for details on Toph, and the man had come to the conclusion that they would inevitably fall in love and life a long and happy life together. Aang was more on the realistic side, knowing that there's no way to know those kinds of things when it comes to someone you hardly know, and had been fed up with the incessant questioning a half hour ago.

"Look, I'm just saying! Zuko said that he hasn't seen you look at anyone like that since you first met my sister, and that's saying something. You and Katara had almost gotten married! If it wasn't for Katara's abandonment issues and your tendency to run away at conflict, you two would be living in this house together.

"Not only that but you cut out on work for this girl! Since when have you ever done that? The only days you're not at work are when you're off traveling to Tibet or wherever for some weird spiritual journey. You took her to your favorite place to eat and, according to you, had an absolute blast! And she wasn't even phased by the fact that you're practically a monk who works at a coffee shop. If that's not the beginnings of a lifelong relationship, then I don't know what is!" Sokka finished putting the tire on as his rant came to an end and walked over to Aang. He wrapped an arm around his shoulder and used his other hand to pat Aang's chest.

"Don't you even worry Aang, love master Sokka is going to make sure this girl doesn't slip away!" Aang grunted and started to rub his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

"A hint of advice though, you might want to slow it down man." Confused Aang turned and look at Sokka as he put down his gardening spade.

"Slow down on what?"

"Dude, you already practically gave her your whole life story! And it was only your first date!" Standing up, the bald monk grabbed his gardening stuff and walked over to his shed, calling it a day. The sun was blistering and there was an itch in the back of his mind screaming at him that it was time to meditate his frustration away. He could feel the beginnings of a sunburn start to form at the top of his head.

"First, it wasn't a date. I don't even know how it happened, it was like we both just randomly made plans to hang out without actually making plans together. Second, what's so wrong about sharing my past? It didn't hurt either of us, did it?" Sokka followed Aang as they made their way back into his house, sitting down on the table as the bald monk pulled out a teapot and filled it with water.

"So you, for whatever reason, ditched out on work to go off with a girl that you hadn't even talked to about hanging out with?" Aang didn't miss how Sokka conveniently didn't carry on the conversation about him taking things too fast.

It was something that his friends always seemed to comment on. Aang didn't have too many social boundaries. He said what he wanted, hugged who he wanted to hug and when, and pretty much just did whatever he wanted. Sure, he was respectful of other people's boundaries, but the man had a serious lack of his own that had gotten him into trouble many a time. So far, they had yet to find one person who could get Aang to just slow down.

However, Aang didn't want to find someone who could get him to slow down. He wanted someone who went at a pace different enough from his that it kept things interesting, but close enough to his pace to keep everything together. Someone who wasn't afraid to jump five steps ahead of him, but also knew when to stop and wait up for him. Someone who he could jump five steps ahead of, and trust that they'd catch up. And maybe sometimes their pace would be the same. He was a free spirit, and he needed someone with a spirit just as free as his that could also reign him in.

"Yes, Sokka, and I think that you keep conveniently forgetting that my shift was already supposed to be over when I left and that I had been working overtime. It wasn't that big of a deal. So what's up with this whole Suki and Azula situation?"

Aang sighed in relief as the conversation was finally led away from himself. He could finally take a few minutes to breathe and let go of all of his tension. He felt bad for being a little snappy, but he hadn't gotten too much sleep the night before and Sokka was just so persistent on the matter.

The fact that Toph had implied that it really had been a date wasn't helping his situation either. Did she think it was a date? What if it had been a date? Was he really just that oblivious? Was she just joking and he was the idiot who was taking it way too seriously? If it wasn't a date did that mean that she was interested in possibly dating? Was he even interested in possibly dating?

Too many questions, not enough meditating. As the teapot started to scream, letting him know the water was ready, he couldn't help but think it would be a long day.

* * *

Flopping down onto her makeshift cot, Toph threw her pillow at her friend in an attempt to get her to just be quiet.

"Please just come back, your parents miss you and so do I! I don't know how many more social events I can survive without you there to make them at least a little bearable," Yue pleaded, easily dodging the pillow thrown her way.

Yue and Toph had been best friends since elementary school. They had two extremely different personalities that, under any normal circumstances, would have clashed. However, they both grew up filthy rich and in high class and both girls hated it. While it was true Yue took more to the lifestyle than Toph, she wasn't fond of the restrictions when it came to her friends and significant others. They had become friends out of necessity, needing someone to depend on in a world neither liked, and eventually grew to become friends for more than just necessity as time went on.

"Yue, you're great and all, but you could not pay me enough to go to one more of those stupid dinner parties." Yue sighed and walked over to Toph's cot, gracefully sitting down next to her friend.

"Toph, look at where you're living. This is a run down, one room studio apartment that looks like it could collapse at any minute. You're only furniture is this… thing that you're trying to pass for a bed and a lawn table in what I'm assuming is supposed to be your kitchen. This isn't any way to live! Please, just at least consider coming back."

Toph groaned and threw her feet up onto Yue's lap. She wasn't going to go back, no way. Her parents didn't see her for what she truly was: a strong independent woman. Blind and defenseless, that's all she was in their eyes. Not something to be proud of, her report cards were never bragged about, her beautiful singing voice was something to be kept hidden. She was a shame, not worthy of taking over the family company (not that she would want to anyway, but it's the thought that counts) because of her disability. No, she wouldn't go back to a world that treated her any lesser than what she deserved.

So what if she was barely scraping by? Ramen was only 20¢ so she could feed herself, she had a roof over her head, and most importantly she had her dojo. When Toph had left the Beifong estate, her parents had insisted on giving her a sum of $4,000 to keep her steady on her feet until she decided to come back. Yeah, that money was supposed to go towards a decent place to live and medical expenses, but instead the money was put towards opening a dojo where she could teach other disabled people the art of Chu Gar. It was her pride and joy, even though so far her class sizes were… small, but she made enough, and the job made her happy.

"Sorry miss fancy pants, but I'm not going anywhere, so unless you want to stick around and pick the dirt out of my toes, I could use some alone time." Her friend sighed and stood up, gently sliding Toph's feet off her lap. She felt Yue walk to the door, could feel the hesitation in her steps. Her heels clacked against the wood of the floor, and the awkward silence was so quiet that Toph could hear the faint sound of her skirt shifting around her legs as she walked.

"I… I can't see you like this, Toph. I care about you too much to watch you let your life crumble before it's even began. If your clicker needs a repair or gets rusty, give me a call, but otherwise… goodbye."

Before Toph could even respond, the door was closed behind Yue and a stark silence was left.

"Yeah, well… who needs you anyways!" Toph angrily muttered as she shoved her head into her pillow in frustration. What did Yue know anyways? She had practically nothing in common with Toph, but she figured the white haired beauty would at least understand why she had to do this.

No matter, she didn't need her anyways. Friends were nice and all, but she could get by without. All she needed was her clicker and her determination.

Groaning, Toph reached up and ripped a little piece of metal from behind her ear. It was connected to a thin metal wire that ran all the way down her clothes and connected to a small metal contraption on the bottom of her foot. It's what she used to see. The vibrations from her stepping would cause the metal bar on the bottom of her foot to vibrate. The vibrations would run all the way up the wire up to her ear, and she would use the sounds from the vibrations to 'hear' everything around her. This was her clicker.

Toph was very skilled with echolocation. When she was young she had ran away to a cave to wallow in self pity and came across a group of bats, where she got the idea from in the first place. When she figured out her new skill and that she wasn't the first person to use echolocation to combat blindness, Toph had been so proud and so happy. She could see! She was no longer a shame to her parents! However, as happy as her parents were at this turn of events, the constant clicking sound their daughter had to constantly make just wouldn't do.

Hence the creation of this nifty little device. Instead of waving around a cane or making clicking noises with her mouth all day, every time she took a step, the sound that bounced off the vibrations would help her see. It wasn't nearly as effective as when she used a cane or her clicking noises, but she still wore it out in public. It was a lot more convenient, after all, and it resulted in a lot less muttering behind her back.

She tossed the device on the ground next to her cot and started clicking her tongue, finding the box that held all her clothes. Inside the box was a few bags, each tied by a different textured string of beads. Feeling around until she found the beads that told her which bag held her pajamas, she pulled it out and started to get changed.

The second part of her day had sucked, running into Yue and being nagged into timbuktu, but the first part of her day was pretty nice. She got her hot chocolate (no, she wasn't ever going to admit that yes, she had been embarrassed to ask for such a stupid drink), and it turned out that twinkletoes wasn't as much of a priss as she thought. All in all, she had a great time with him.

Of course, she did have that little slip up about the whole seventh date thing, but she just shrugged it off. There was no changing it now, and he could take it as he wanted it. She didn't care if he considered it a date or not. She wasn't a romantic, but she also wasn't opposed to the idea. Things would work out how they wanted to.

She refused to admit that calling her day out with Aang a date made her a little jittery. However, Toph refused to admit to a lot of things, so really this was only to be expected.

All she needed was a good night's sleep. She could forget all about Yue, wouldn't have to deal with the worries of running her dojo, and just dream. Determined to get a good night's sleep, she stomped over to her bed and flopped down, not bothering to pull the thin blanket around her.

She fell asleep with the taste of udon on her tongue and a soft smile.

So here you go! I hope I managed to explain the echolocation well enough, and now we have a little insight into Toph's life.

Thank you so much for reading, and please leave a review!


	4. Chapter 4

A month passed, hundreds of cups of coffee made and hours spent meditating, and soon the charming girl who had overtaken his life for a day was someone who was kept at the back of his mind. She hadn't shown up to the coffee shop much to Aang's chagrin. He hadn't received a single call from her, and he really regretted not making sure he also got her number before she left. Although he supposed it put the question of whether or not their outing had been a date to a close. If it had been, she probably would have been back. He wasn't too concerned, though; if it's meant to be, it'll be.

Sokka had a bit of a different take on the situation, though. True to what he had said all those weeks ago sitting with him in his garden, he really did intend on becoming Aang's love guru of sorts. He was probably out wandering the streets, looking for a girl fitting the description Aang had given him right at that moment. Which would have been saying something, considering there was a storm out so bad that Aang had shut down shop and was holed up in his office at that moment.

Rubbing his eyes and giving a tired sigh, Aang walked away from his desk covered in paperwork over to the little shrine he had set up in the corner of his office. He grabbed a box of matches from a cupboard and sat down, lighting the candles and mumbling a prayer under his breath. It was times like these that he really missed Gyatso. If he were with him, there would be no doubt that instead of doing boring paperwork they'd be in the kitchen coming up with new coffee recipes. It'd probably end up in a coffee bean fight, throwing handfuls of the stuff at each other until neither could breathe from fits of laughter.

Aang had never truly gotten a chance to mourn the loss of the man he considered to be his father. He had only just gotten out of foster care when it happened, trying to find a place of his own and learning his way around the world. Then he was handed the coffee shop and any time not spent running errands was spent cleaning up loose ends in the business. His life had only just started settling and now that years had gone by since his passing, he wasn't sure how to handle the loss. So he had built a shrine, something to remember him by, and tried to keep his fun-loving ways in his heart. He had started seeing a therapist who was helping him sort everything out, and he felt like he was slowly getting to a place of healing. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite there yet.

So Aang sat and meditated, pretending that Gyatso was the one sitting in front of him instead of just a picture of him and some candles.

Time was fluid whenever Aang meditated. He would pull himself out of his time alone and sometimes only a few minutes had passed, sometimes hours. So there was no telling how long he was sitting there until an insistent pounding pulled him out of it. Scrambling onto his feet he walked over to his office door and looked out, only to find a drenched Toph pounding on the glass door. He could faintly hear her screaming something through the glass, sounding suspiciously along the lines of "Twinkletoes, I know you're in there! Get your sissy butt over here!"

Chuckling he hurried over and unbolted the door, letting the girl in. Her teeth were chattering and her face was tinted red, bun halfway undone and bangs sticking to her cheeks. Her clothes stuck to her skin, revealing a faint outline of the hard-toned muscles throughout her upper body. Once she stepped in she stood there awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot and tapping her fingers against her legs. She was clearly trying to play cool, but she was shivering way too hard to pull nonchalant off.

Without saying a word Aang walked over behind the main counter and flipped on a couple of machines, pulling out all the ingredients he'd need for a hot chocolate. The sound of tapping filled the room, telling Aang she was watching him through her special sight.

"If you like, in the back there's a box of old employee uniforms, so you can wear those and get out of those wet clothes," he called over his shoulder, grinning when she bit her lip in contemplation before stomping off to the room he had mentioned. Turning back to the whirring machine he poured in the cocoa, adding a bit of extra steamed milk. Letting it heat up he grabbed some towels and walked to the front of the store, laying them over the puddle of water that had formed where Toph had stood.

The sound of crashing followed by a screech brought Aang to the back room, where he was greeted by the sight of Toph's blushing face peeking out over a pile of boxes. Aang couldn't stop himself from bursting out laughing, which simply resulted in Toph throwing box after box in his general direction. Hunched over wheezing, he tried to dodge them as best as he could but Toph had pretty good aim for someone who couldn't see where they were throwing.

The barrage continued, Toph eventually joining in on the laughter, until she was all out of boxes and laughing her face blue right next to him. Once Aang had calmed down a little, leaning against the wall, he realized her laughter had a lilting tone to it, occasionally interrupted by a loud snort, and it completely lit her face up. He couldn't help but think that she looked good like that, clothes messed up and hair everywhere but with a giant smile plastered on her face.

Then again, Aang thought everyone looked better with a smile on their face.

Aang grabbed one of the shirts that had spilled out of the boxes and threw it at Toph. She punched him on the shoulder and smirked at him in return.

"Thanks, Twinkletoes. You might want to go check on your hot chocolate though, something tells me you wouldn't appreciate this place burning to a crisp in the middle of a downpour."

With a yelp Aang jumped up and ran as fast as he could to the other room, the sound of Toph falling into a fit of laughter following him as he rushed to prevent the exact scenario she just described. The smell of chocolate filled his senses, and once he made sure that the chocolate was ok he pulled out two cups and poured the burning liquid into them.

"At least the fire would be warm, though. I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life." Aang looked over his shoulder to find Toph standing behind him. Her green blouse was replaced by the orange employee shirt, three sizes too big for her. She had let her hair down and it splayed down her back, dripping all over the floor. He couldn't even be bothered to care though, he was just glad that she had decided to pop back into the shop even if the circumstances were… questionable.

Nudging her arm lightly with the hot chocolate so she could grab it from him, he led her back into his office so that they could sit down next to his heater.

"I'm not about to go burning down the building so that you can warm up, but I've got the next best thing."

Tapping her foot Toph took inventory of the room before plopping down and splaying herself out on the floor. She kept the hot chocolate close to her face, occasionally pressing it against her cheek. Neither spoke, but it was a comfortable silence. There wasn't the need to say anything, even though he really wanted to ask what the heck she was doing out in that downpour.

He supposed he could ask her about that once he was done with his hot chocolate. For now though, he was content just where he was.

 _So this chapter was pretty short considering the fact that I've been sick for a month straight, but here ya go!_


End file.
